Eyes-On: <cite>Bayonetta</cite> and <cite>Mad World</cite>

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Eyes-On: <cite>Bayonetta</cite> and <cite>Mad World</cite>

LOS ANGELES – We didn't get to play Platinum Games' Bayonetta and Mad World at E3, but we did get to watch them.

Bayonetta, from the creative minds that brought us* Devil May Cry*, is quite possibly the only videogame preview that left the phrase "hair portal fist shoe" in my notebook. And I even remember what it means. The game's heroine has crazy magic hair, that she sends into a portal, and it comes out the other end in the form of a fist or a shoe to attack enemies.

Other than that, Bayonetta looks like a crazier Devil May Cry. You're a witch fighting against angels, so all of your enemies are white-and-gold to your black-and-purple. A J-pop vocalist sings the in-game music as the eponymous lead slashes, shoots, and portal-hair-kicks angels to their demise. She can summon torture devices, like an iron maiden, then slam enemies inside. It's a very JoJo's Bizarre Adventure vibe.

One boss monster that she fought during the demo had a face like a marble cherub, but underneath was a disgusting gaping maw. As it takes damage, it visibly breaks apart, the cherubic face cracking and exposing the yecch underneath. To finish it off, Bayonetta's hair turned into a massive hair-dragon that rose up from the ground and launched a giant attack.

The game, for what it's worth, was running on an Xbox 360.

Immediately following this brief playthrough, we watched an even briefer playthrough of Mad World. It's almost identical to what we saw in May, but at least they gave us screenshots. There are only two new things that I can note about this intriguing and violent Wii killathon.

One, the game will be ever so slightly more colorful than previously indicated, as you can see: Sound effects will be painted yellow.

Two, play-by-play announcers will call every minute of the game's action. Example:

"Why do you think he's spiking him so many times?""To make sure he's dead!""His torso is practically gone! Of course he's dead!""Well, then because it's funny! I don't know! Stop fuckin' asking me questions!"

This was significantly less hilarious when the entire dialogue repeated itself ten seconds later, after producer Atsushi Inaba impaled another guy onto the wall of spikes.

Either way, things are looking very good for Platinum Games and Sega right now.